Hello again, my aniblogging wonder. It was a refreshing change this week when I finally got some time off (even if it was to ward off some migraine >.>), to finish all pending Winter titles and I’m feeling quite good about Spring because yes, there’s a plethora of titles but some of them are actually good and promising enough to write home about. Every season I’m at the forefront to tackle original anime because it’s wondrous and lack cheat sheets with a lot of room for speculation. With C, I have some expectations because of the amazing crew behind it. I can only wish everything gels well together so without any further ado:

We are back to Kimimaro’s guilt-trip. Well, not specifically but you can’t call it a joy ride either because he doesn’t even know what he’s gotten himself into; though, he never had much of a choice to begin with. Masakaki shows Kimimaro the Financial District quite briefly before dropping the big DEAL bomb on him. Rather than giving him time to digest the mindboggling alternate world he has been thrown in, Masakaki produces a veteran DUDE as Kimimaro’s opponent for his first Deal. To tackle that he also introduces his asset to him: Msyu, a cute satyr.

No time for you to smell the roses, boy.

FIGHTO~

My face is HERE, where are you looking at?

Get your head back in the game, boy!

Taketazaki as I presume the typical baddie’s name, calls upon his asset Gig and starts iron-balling Kimimaro, the newbie. Of course, Kimimaro doesn’t know what the hell is going on but thankfully his asset is two steps ahead and saves him from harm’s way. Seeing her get hurt on his account, Kimimaro does a reality check and tries to learn the game ropes.

Mysu helps him make the last save by swapping his card and activating a special power Mezzoflation, which pretty much obliterates the opponent’s finishing act.

Of course, there will be spectators because there are many Entrepreneurs of Midas Bank. For keeping tabs on each other, the bank has a leaderboard, which displays stock holdings of everyone in the running. Also, any opponent can observe the ongoing Deal(s) and make bets for the result to not only gain profit but form their own opinions about Entrepreneurs fighting it out. Mikuni is one of seasoned veterans, highly interested in Kimimaro; his asset Q, goes to the degree of comparing them to be the winners in profiting from their first deal even without knowing the ground details and trying to save their assets in process.

Interestingly, Kimimaro’s is shocked during most of his interaction with Masakaki

Winning was quite a relaxant for Kimimaro, because he simply passed out afterwards. If you thought, Masakaki got less screen time, think again, he terrorized Kimimaro by popping up from different nooks and crannies after he woke up to remind him of the rules of Financial District and advice of continuing deals because bad things happen when you get bankrupt.

That’s a LOT OF CARBS, Kimi!

Our hero finally treats himself to some real food and pretty much zones out during his day thinking about the possibilities. Though, Hanabi warns that saving is the best thing because you would never know what might happen next. A small reminder here, this is still a very depression-facing Japan so money is tight and the news is rife with many societal crimes and suicides.

Mikuni gets Kimimaro’s background checked and visits him in one of the convenience marts he works at just when he was getting used to the concept of black Midas Money circulating with the real world money. Of course, it can’t be seen by the humans who are not Midas Entrepreneurs but it’s pretty much acceptable and used throughout.

Mikuni reveals his true identity to Kimimaro and suggests to give him a helping hand. Kimimaro is still adamant about living a ‘normal’ life rather than what he’s thrown into by accident. But isn’t that just an everyday thing? Normal is boring and facing challenges is what makes life worthwhile, at least that is what Mikuni believes. He’s a go-getter tycoon with many investments in process and constantly on the hunt for many other opportunities; in other words he’s a cash cow for Midas Bank. Kimimaro can actually follow his footsteps as he does share some traits with him along with a lot of potential.

It’s a wrap up with the blondie (Jennifer Satou) spying on the hotties.

EXTRA CONTROL!

Of course he had to wear those horns to match his asset. One-boobed asset has no fashion sense like his Entre.

Learned Facts about Financial District and Entrepreneurs:

Midas Bank is indeed the only such entity that produces the Midas Money and issues the Entrepreneur Cards to randomly selected candidates.

Every Entre has to Deal once a week, hook or by crook.

Every Entre is assigned an asset, who is not only their property but help them out in fighting opponents as well. Usually inspired from one demon or the other, they have quick healing powers and can take a lot of damage.

Asset is the embodiment of the Entre’s future, thus not unfair. You can easily say that a good partnership is needed to profit on Deals.

Entre can communicate with their Asset via Midas Card any time of the day.

There are four types of cards that can be assigned to candidates as depicted above. For now, we know that all the new entrants get the Sun symbol ones, while veterans might have a choice to upgrade their statuses (most probably coming from Silver, Gold, Platinum credit card concept).

Veterans get more margins in Deals, which have both positive and negative outcomes.

During a Deal: If an opponent gets hit, they lose money. If a cost is attached to an attack and it hits, the better makes profit.

Non-Entrepreneurs can’t see Midas money, while Entrepreneurs can.

Future as a collateral might not mean in spiritual sense rather using the potential of an Entre to get more money flowing in and out.

Going bankrupt gets you banished from the Financial District but it comes with shocking repercussions in real life and thus it’s suggested to continue Dealing. This is not the complete information of course.

It’s better to keep quiet about the Financial District because even if people were told about it, who would believe it unless they experience it themselves?

End Thoughts:

We got quite extreme reviews for C in the first impressions. However, if I go with mere count, 80% of the readers really liked this and wanted to continue, while the rest were either unsure with a small percentage quitting it. As I know I can’t make everyone happy, I’ll simply be siding with the majority for my own reasoning of course. Granted, the first episode was not as mind boggling as we were all expecting it to be; at least, not like Occult Academy but everyone knows how that ended, right? There were definitely faults BUT—which is a big but, it was filled with enough juice for hooking the audience. I mean, who didn’t like Masakaki? The human-form of Kyuubey, wheeling and dealing an innocent shounen? The protagonist just gets thrown into some srs bsns and what is not to enjoy about gambling your future for money, eh?

After the second episode, I can say, I LIKED THIS. This centralization over Money is simple genius. It plays true to the title of the anime. If you really think about it, money has a huge significance in everyone’s lives. Gets us stuff we want and gives us means to whatever end we would like. We work for it, we strive for it, we save it, we spend it and ad nauseum. In a depression-ridden Japan, this way of dealing money is ideal and you can’t even call this easy-money because your life along with your money is on the line and bankruptcy seems more like a suicide than getting out of the clutches of Midas Bank.

The bank in question is grand and the crux of this entire hubbub. I can’t wait to discover how Midas bank came about, who is behind Masakaki and his creepiness. I’m not sure he’s even human; an AI program that is directly connected with Midas bank and the real world? Not really sure because there’s been only two episodes but we will see. Of course, I don’t like everything about this. Animation went derpy with CGI and I hated it whenever it was visible on Masakaki (everything should be perfect with Masakaki, damn it!). I know that Tatsunoko Productions is not awesome like Production I.G or Brains Base but c’mon guys, pace your budgets and do a good job. Plot can actually fly!

Coming to the main characters, Kimimaro at least is not playing a wuss, which gives me a great pleasure; I hate whiny protagonists. Sure, he’s screaming ‘I want a normal life’ from rooftops but there’s something in him that doesn’t want that normal even if it’s subliminal for now. I especially liked the facts that small wants came together for him to reach out for money; small things like food, tuition fee, employment, the girl he likes being bullied to go out for drink to the same girl actually having a rich boyfriend. Different people have different ambitions in life and even if Kimimaro stresses on the fact that he wants a normal one; he shouldn’t have cared about his asset and simply forget all about Midas Bank. Like Mikuni observed, he has a lot of potential and the sooner he realizes it, the better.

For the record, if Mikuni turns out to be Kimimaro’s father, I’m going to kill someone; wouldn’t that be just too obvious and anime-ish?! For Jennifer, I can only say this: she smells like a journalist/detective. The ways she has been keeping tabs on Mikuni and Kimimaro might play a significant role in the plot. Also, SOMEBODY NEEDS TO TRANSLATE THIS, LIKE NAO! I wish I knew Japanese! AND, don’t forget to check the full version of OP Sequence. It’s good.

Preview: Of course, there’s no preview. But I have checked the official site as usual and got the title for the next episode: Conspiracy. Kimimaro will visit his old home and get to read his father’s diary; I have a feeling, he was/is a Dealer in Financial District. Also, we would finally get to know why Jennifer Satou has been tailing Mikuni/Kimimaro; maybe to get to the bottom of Financial District? Tune in next time for more theories. Ja ne~

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The Boss lady of Metanorn, who makes it all happen. An animanga enthusiast, who watches/reads almost anything that strikes her fancy. Just beware of her Death Perception and always keep her happy. Regularly found at @KyokaiTM & [email protected].

32 Responses to “C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control – 02”

You’re so thorough with your posts, Kyokai, I love it XD Now that they’ve finally explained the system, I’m a lot more optimistic with how C can turn out. The CGI on the people is weird though, that’s for sure.

There’s definitely someone who’s the puppeteer behind Masakaki…Probably the one who runs the whole district. There’s not much to go by right now, but I’m curious too XD

…This kid is not gonna be happy with just a “normal” life by the end of this lololol. Oh, and I JUST realized he has the same seiyuu as Natsuno from Shiki because the tone of voice he used to talk with Mikuni sounds exactly like how he speaks to the shiki. Wow..took me a while.

Thanks so much for the thorough list on battle mechanics! I watched it twice, but I definitely missed a ton of stuff (I think I was distracted by Madoka).

Mikuni being Kimimaro’s father would be really obvious, so if it works that way, they better get it over with quickly instead of leaving it to the end. There’s a high chance it’s all one big redherring though, and that would certainly be more interesting! 😀

Hahaa, you are welcome, Renn-kun. I actually saw this after Madoka because I wanted to get it over with rather than being spoiled but I did rewatch the battle twice, some ending parts and trawled the official site. xD

I wish upon a star for that redherring! It would be so obvious if he’s the father or even someone who knew his father. There has to be more to this protege-mentor relationship. xD

Not as good as the first episode but still very entertaining. I love the whole Gankutsuou-esque style to the financial world, it can get a little tacky though. And the CGI …oh the CGI. IT BURNS MAH EYEZ.

Majority liked it? From what I see it’s the other way around though… and there are people who don’t like Masakaki, believe it or not (has something to do with the “clown” look)

“if Mikuni turns out to be Kimimaro’s father, I’m going to kill someone; wouldn’t that be just too obvious and anime-ish?!”
=I doubt this. Mikuni’s honestly TOO YOUNG to be Kimimaro’s dad. He must’ve been as young as the dad from Lotte’s toy if that’s the case.

“Normal is boring and facing challenges is what makes life worthwhile, at least that is what Mikuni believes”
= Though I think Mikuni just thinks that Kimimaro’s being normal is like “running away”, not exactly “boring”

“DUUUUDE, BUT YOU NO-COOL LIKE IZAYA!”
= Yeah xD But he’s trying to annoy Mikuni, perhaps an Izaya fan? Hahahahaha!

Cracked me up so much xD:
“No time for you to smell the roses, boy.”
“My face is HERE, where are you looking at?”

I was talking about the readers of Metanorn from my first impressions. In case of fandom, I’m getting more haters compared to people who are patiently waiting for this to unfold rather than making up their minds from the first episode. I wish, I could kill all the Masakaki haters. Grrr….

In case of age, I was saying more from the anime-perspective because look at Head (Star Driver), who looks like a teenager yet was Takuto’s father. If you think about it, everything’s relative so I didn’t want to miss out on any theories. Though, if you see Mikuni watching kids playing in the park and his extra interest in Kimimaro, something tells me that he’s either a distant relative or knew his father closely.

The Information broker to me was annoying for sure but of course he knows too much already and would be showing up more to Mikuni’s chagrin. I sure want to know more about both of them.

Definitely too soon to write this off. There’s lots of room for development as well.

Masakiki is all the mysterious characters put into one. Be it Cheshire cat, Willy Wonka, Joker, Ryuk and ad nauseum, he has the bad habit of popping from different places to surprise our protagonist.

In case of Mikuni, he and everyone entering the Financial District is working for the Midas Bank in one way or the other. I think he’s one of the brighter Entres who have earned a lot of cash for Midas and has a special place in the district because of his ‘specialty’, though if all his intentions are pure are not is yet to be seen.

That’s actually a very good idea, trading card game of C should be wondrous!

Gah masakaki is so creepy! he kinda reminds me of break from pandora hearts with the way he seems to be able to apparate to places randomly >_>

I quite like the battles in this. every opponent can have some unique special power in the battle so they have the possibility to stay interesting and fresh. And I love the whole idea of basing it off of money, its a nice break from the whole physical power based battles that are oh-so common in other series.

The CGI doesn’t turn me off that much since it makes the whole financial district feel like a game. Masakaki is part of the game-like district so it makes sense that he would also be CGI’ed

Also I doubt that mikuni is kimimaro’s father unless he has a terrible memory and thus needs to research the kid he abandoned =P

That is the awesomeness of Masakaki, spouting up from every nook and cranny. So win~

I actually liked Yu-gi-oh original and money being the central point for all these virtual battles somehow seem fitting. And I was fine with the Financial District CGI, not just the real world one. I want Masakaki as perfect as he can be and his weird poses and angles just looked ugly in Kimimaro’s room.

For the father part, weirder things have happened in anime like father not knowing that he actually has a son or him abandoning the wife and she moving on to some other city. I for one would be tremendously happy if this mentor-protege relationship is done on pure potential and some trait similarities. ^^

Woooot another awesome episode! Loved the monster battle even with all the bank terms used as battle terms very cool! I don’t really like that CGI on the demons it looks so weird to me. But that’s a small thing I can overlook for now long as the story is addictive 😛

I quickly decided that Msyu was my number one favourite character the moment she started slapping Kimimaro. ._.

I mean, that is the qucikest and most effective way to get him to know the seriousness of the business, right? XD I really hate it when main characters go all wimpy when they are being pummeled with giant metal balls. =.=

Hahahaa! She is definitely an awesome asset, who not only saved Kimimaro’s behind but made him learn the ropes of the game. I hate whiny characters so it was refreshing to see Kimimaro actually backing it up with Mysu.

I would actually love it if Jennifer was the next opponent but being one of the major supporting characters, I hardly think it’s time but hey, third episodes are always for those awesome reveal so I’m looking forward to it; whatever it is. :3

Hmm. Money from (Virtual) Financial district= massive gain in reality. I wouldn’t mind that!
Still, any vibes from Eden of the East? Like, a random Schrodinger’s Cat just dropped 33.5 million yen into your account? That’s how I feel from that ep, Masakaki being everywhere and nowhere at the same time, and with Mikuni as well, since he’s probably a shadow multi-billionaire (again, wished the Financial District was real!)
I like it how Mikuni relates Yoga to himself and as a protege-mentor relationship, though i wonder what will happen between them since Mikuni would most likely have the foresight of the Financial District since it sounded foreboding between Q and him. Msyu, lol, he got the Tsundere Asset! I’d say Yoga is Bi-Winning at the moment
Already getting a feeling of some choosing between reality and taking the risk of making money by selling your future, though really, (don’t kill me for saying this) C just feelings like an economic form of pokemon. Fight for money with your Pikachu Asset!

Exactly! The idea is pretty interesting and there are definitely some correlations to Eden of the East. 50 points for mentioning the Schrodinger’s Cat (time travel = <3). I can’t wait to find out more about Masakaki because he’s just that mysterious. How he operates and who he reports to, I sure would like to know.

Mikuni is definitely bigger than Trump in Financial District and even in real world, where he’s helping with the ‘flow of money’. How he tackles Kimimaro is going to be interesting because it was definitely not rosy for him since he joined the District as a rookie. How he got his current position would definitely be fascinating.

I actually agree with you on that Financial Pokemon because someone or the other, it’s all about the money and how to earn more with the help of respective assets. xD

Better than the first episode storywise but …. the awful CG of Masakaki!!! It’s bearable if the scene is only a few seconds long but staring at that ugly CG felt like an eternity. I really hope there is more to this story than having battles each episode.

[…] “There were definitely faults BUT—which is a big but, it was filled with enough juice for hooking the audience. I mean, who didn’t like Masakaki? The human-form of Kyuubey, wheeling and dealing an innocent shounen? The protagonist just gets thrown into some srs bsns and what is not to enjoy about gambling your future for money, eh?” – Metanorn […]